Animals

Crocodiles

Its mighty jaw can snap prey with more than 5,000 pounds of force yet it is gentle enough to help its young hatch out of their thin shelled eggs. The mother will gently gather up the babies in her large mouth and take them to a safe spot away from other predators. Under the shallow river waters of Africa, their teeth glow in the dark like plastic Halloween vampire teeth. Meet the Nile Crocodile, the biggest croc species in Africa and the second largest species in the world.

Growing to more than 18 feet long and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, the males outweigh the females by 30 percent. As adults, they will feed on animals three times their own size such as antelope and zebra, waiting for the opportunity to pounce from the water for their next meal.

Known threats to Nile crocodiles are loss of habitat, entanglement in gill nets and the effects of pollution.